Gardening Tips
Gardening Tips
v Plant marigolds with your tomato hanging basket, they help eliminate white flies and some other insects.
v A complete layer of crushed egg shells around plants keeps snails off of them.
v Line terra cotta pots with a plastic bag to retain soil moisture. Make a drain hole in the plastic bag at the bottom.
v Keep hotel shower caps to make mini-greenhouses by extending the caps around the perimeter of a flower pot after you sow the seeds or place cuttings.
v After making garden labels coat them with clear nail polish to keep them from fading.
v Roses need a lot of potassium, cut up banana peels then spread them like mulch around the base of your rose bushes, scratch the peel slivers into the top 1/3 inch of the soil.
v To eliminate mildew from roses mix in a spray bottle 1 tablespoon of baking powder with a quarter pint of milk. Shake thoroughly, then spray the rose bush leaves. This makes the leaf surface slightly alkaline and mildew resistant.
v For one week steep old tea bags in a quart bottle of water. Pour this water around rhododendrons, azaleas, and other iron loving plants. The tea bag water helps unlock iron from soil lime making it more available for the plants to use.
v Cut out the bottom of a 2-liter plastic bottle. Use it as a miniature cloche or as a spill-proof scoop for potting mix, fertilizer or other garden uses.
v Grate soap that contains stearic acid, like Fels Naptha, then sprinkle it around plants that are bothered by squirrels to keep them away. Pepper also works.
v Gramma’s favorite: place your vacuum cleaner fluff in a tray then sprinkle it with water. Use it as a source of boron, magnesium, iron, etc. by using the wet fluff as mulch around your tomato plants. The fluff is full of skin cells, dead mites, dander, pet and human hair, etc. that are full of minerals, etc. tomatoes love.
v To get rid of ants mix one part granulated white sugar with one part borax (a laundry product). Sprinkle in and around ant holes. They will carry it to the queen who will die if she consumes the borax.
v In your cabbage and cauliflower patch sprinkle young plants with 1 tablespoon of table salt to a gallon of water. This makes the leaves unpalatable to leaf chewers.
v Hang ripening bananas around tomato plants. Bananas produce ethylene gas which accelerates ripening. That is why you never should have vase flowers in the same room with fruit, especially bananas, they shorten the cut flower life.
v Keep a pontica bucket of sharp sand and motor oil mixture in your garage or garden shed. Each time you use your garden tools, before or after, dip your tools in the sand/oil mix. This will keep your tools clean, oiled, and sharper.
Starting your Garden:
Ten Steps for Success:
- Write down your plan, measure and diagram.
- Prepare the garden soil. Select seeds carefully.
- Design with climate, elevation, and maturity size in mind.
- Know fertilizing limits. Learn to compost.
- Organize plants with similar watering needs together.
- Locate the garden with 6-8 hours of daily sun.
- Limit pest control, don’t kill the pollinators and good bugs.
- Learn how to prune properly.
- Plant at correct depths, mulch as needed.
- Remove diseased failing plants.
Soil Preparation:
Don’t get over anxious to get started. Never dig or till wet soil — you could destroy its structure. Hold a ball of soil in your hand and compact it. If it crumbles easily, you can cultivate the soil. If the ball stays compacted, it’s too damp, and you should wait another day or two otherwise you could produce “concrete-like” soil conditions.
The soil at the SCG plots has not been cultivated for nearly a century. This soil will need to be tested. You can help correct your plot’s soil deficiencies by adding soil amendments such as “cold” compost, manure, peat moss, other organic material. Inorganic amendments — such as sand, phosphorus, gypsum or Utelite– may also be necessary. Broadcast amendments over the soil to a depth of 2? to 3?.
Your soil may also benefit from the addition of a slow-release fertilizer. Greensand, a popular amendment, contains potassium, iron and other nutrients necessary for healthy plant growth. Gypsum supplies calcium and is said to loosen clay soils.
Once you’ve broadcast the amendments over the soil, use a rake to distribute them evenly. Use a rototiller or cultivating fork to incorporate them. Dig into the soil as deeply as possible: at least 12? to 18?.
Once you’ve incorporated the amendments, you’re ready to plant.
Improper soil practices and conditions:
* compaction: stops root growth
* working wet soil: damages/compacts soil
* constant digging: breaks down organic matter
* walking on the soil: compacts and forces more digging
* no life in the soil: no worms, grubs, etc.
* poor drainage: wet, poor rooting, rotting
* poor soil quality or structure: collapse, compaction
* wrong particle size: too fine may cap, too coarse = no germination
* loose soil: dries out, poor rooting, plants fall over
* insufficient compost to nourish plant growth
Compost is very important:
Organic matter provides the heart and fuel of the soil, it:
* glues the soil particles into stable porous structures
* improves all mineral soils, loosens clay soils
* holds water
* provides and holds nutrients in a plant accessible form
* supports soil life: bacteria, fungi and worms; may attract bees
* Learn how to make compost
Look after your soil and your soil will support healthy vegetable crops and be very productive.
Soil Conditioning:
Seed Selection
Instructions for correct seed selection
Rainwater Collection:
Rainwater harvesting that is used for gardening purposes is finally legal in Salt Lake. Wasatch Community Gardens and urban homesteader Jonathon Krausert, at Tree Utah’s Eco Garden at the Day-Riverside Library hold workshops on what it takes to build a functional rainwater collections system in your own backyard.